Hegseth Announces Probe Following Leak To The Media
President Donald Trump and senior national security officials are forcefully rejecting media reports that recent U.S. airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites only set back the regime’s program by a few months. The criticism comes after internal assessments within the administration concluded the impact was limited — findings that were quickly leaked and reported by multiple outlets, including CNN and The New York Times.
At the NATO summit in the Netherlands, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed an active FBI investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of the classified report. “Of course we’re doing a leak investigation,” Hegseth said. “This information is for internal purposes — battle damage assessments. CNN and others are trying to spin it to make the president look bad, when this was an overwhelming success.”
The internal intelligence assessment reportedly found that while the strikes damaged three nuclear facilities, Iran had preemptively moved a significant portion of its enriched uranium. As a result, the setback to Tehran’s program may be limited to several months, not years — a conclusion at odds with the public narrative advanced by the White House.
President Trump strongly disputed the internal estimate, maintaining the attack dealt a decisive blow. “I think Israel is going to be telling us very soon,” Trump said, referencing anticipated Israeli analysis. He added, “This was an unbelievable hit by genius pilots and genius people in the military… They’re not being given credit for it because we have scum in this room.”
Trump singled out CNN, MSNBC, and The New York Times as “scum,” accusing them of distorting a major military success. “What they’ve done is they’re trying to make this unbelievable victory into something less,” he said.
The president likened the operation to the World War II atomic bombings in terms of strategic impact, claiming the strikes set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back “basically decades.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also criticized the media coverage. Speaking with Politico, he said the reporting “mischaracterized” the level of destruction, adding that official conclusions about the strike’s effectiveness are still evolving as on-site assessments continue.
Steve Witkoff, the administration’s special envoy for Middle East affairs, went further during a Fox News appearance Tuesday evening, calling the leak of the classified report “treasonous.” He said the disclosure undermines U.S. credibility and provides Iran with insight into U.S. intelligence capabilities and expectations.
The White House maintains that the strikes — which involved some of the most advanced ordnance in the U.S. arsenal — caused substantial long-term damage to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. Officials argue that early reporting based on incomplete information ignores the full scope of operational impact and serves to distort public perception during a critical period of strategic recalibration in the region.